VANCOUVER, CANADA (March 9, 2020) — The new Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service (“Ecotex”), linen processing facility in Kelowna, British Columbia was awarded as one of the “Best Laundry Plants of the Year in North America” by Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA), the industry’s international trade association. Annually TRSA awards its Best Plants of the Year award acknowledging laundry environmental sustainability, quality, efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Over a span of 12 months, Ecotex built a new, modern healthcare laundry processing facility in Kelowna, B.C., Canada. At 35,000-square-feet, the facility processes 18 million pounds of certified Hygienically Clean® linens a year, serving more than 80 hospitals, clinics and healthcare clients. The facility has seen an 80 percent gain in productivity over the past three years, since opening in 2017.
“The plant which we built in Kelowna is a result of things we’ve learned from others in the industry over many years, as well as our own experience operating a number of plants in different markets in the United States and Canada,” observed Bryan Bartsch, company president, adding, “we were able to take the best practices from others, as well as apply things we’ve learned and implement a super-efficient plant.”
The Ecotex facility’s largest investments have been in automated wash systems, energy recovery systems, and control technologies. The company’s proprietary linen transport and distribution cart program allows a new “no fold” handling approach on some textile items that would have previously been folded, increasing productivity, and saving the clients’ money. The plant’s approach to of “pre-building” orders six hours in advance of shipment created a standard work model that has decreased time expressing goods through the plant to fill orders “just in time.” As a result, Ecotex has achieves a 99% order fill rate within a 24-hour process cycle. Ecotex uses a cloud based linen management system, a SaaS system known as ELMTM software, which supports the delivery of smarter linen solutions for customers including enhanced linen utilization, service standardization and bed makeup programs. Ecotex owns and operates laundries serving healthcare clients in two provinces (British Columbia, Ontario) and eight states (Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, West Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois).
“It’s a real honour to be recognized alongside for the innovations and new levels of plant performance we have each accomplished,” said Ecotex Chief Executive, Randy Bartsch.
The Best Plants accolade, part of TRSA’s Leadership Awards series, will be presented March 25, 2020 at the TRSA 10th Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC. Other member organizations to be honored that evening include winners of TRSA’s awards for community and customer service, diversity recognition, safety and sustainability. For more about the TRSA 10th Annual Legislative Conference, visit www.trsa.org/legcon.
ABOUT TRSA
TRSA (www.trsa.org), based in Alexandria, VA, represents the nearly $20-billion linen, uniform and facility services industry by advocating for fair federal and state regulatory and legislative policy and promoting the economic and environmental benefits of reusable textiles. Employing more than 120,000 people at over 1,500 facilities in North America, our industry supplies, launders and maintains linens, uniforms, towels, mats and other products. Most Canadians and Americans benefit at least once per week from the hygiene and safety of products provided to the industry’s customers. TRSA verifies and quantifies our industry’s commitment to sustainability and cleanliness through our Clean Green and Hygienically Clean certification programs. TRSA increases the industry’s productivity, sustainability, safety and professionalism through education, research, benchmarking and information-sharing.
ABOUT ECOTEX
Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service (www.SmarterLinenSolutions.com) is a major regional provider of healthcare laundry and linen services to hospitals, sub-acute and medical facilities across Canada and the western United States. A private, family owned and operated company, Ecotex is focused on the delivery of Smarter Linen Solutions to its many customers. Committed to service excellence, Ecotex has invested in technology, equipment as well as practices and processes to improve clinical outcomes for our customers. Using the industries best management practices Ecotex helps to create a safe, comfortable environment for patient care. As a Clean Green® certified laundry operator Ecotex demonstrates the use of best practices for reusing, reclaiming and recycling resources.